Preventing Project Failure...One Hour at a Time

By Alexis D. Gutzman
As featured in The E-Business Thought Leader

What is the consequence of project failure? According to Software Project Survival Guide , "Between one third and two thirds of projects will exceed their schedule and budget targets before they are delivered. Of the most expensive software projects, about half will eventually be canceled for being out of control."

Anyone who has ever been involved in software development or implementation knows that a lot of project management hours are tied up gathering information from (often non-communicative) team members. Additionally, projects are often planned with less-than-adequate time provided for integration and quality assurance, then when early tasks fall behind, hours are shaved off these underresourced tasks to try to get the project back on schedule.

A project plan is only up-to-date the moment it is created. As soon as the first task is assigned to a team member, the project plan is potentially out of date. The more human resources assigned to a project, the greater likelihood of error and probability that the hours spent actually exceed those scheduled.

Accounting for Time as it is Spent
"The real problem is that project managers often don't know how many hours are being expended on each task in a project. Even with project management software, like Microsoft Project, without accurate information about how long each task is taking, you don't know whether your project is on track," explains Ray White, President of Scoutwest, makers of Standard Time. In an ideal world, developers and others would update the project plan as they worked on tasks. Team members would record their own hours - every day as each new task is started and stopped - and update the master plan to reflect how much work has been completed and how far along each task actually is.

There are two ways one might go about getting this kind of cooperation from team members: via policy and via technology. In my experience, it's difficult enough getting staff to submit weekly timesheets on time; daily task-by-task timesheets are completely unrealistic.

Technology to Track Time
The technology approach is far more reliable, particularly if you have software that works across a network, permitting each team member to clock the hours associated with each task from his own computer or handheld device.

Standard Time integrates with Microsoft Project Server and Intuit QuickBooks to allow the work time associated with project tasks to be updated immediately by project members. This helps tighten the feedback loop - the length of time it takes for managers to get information from team members in order to identify potential schedule slips.

Team members use Standard Time as they start and finish tasks - either on their desktop computers or on Palm or PocketPC handheld devices. Standard Time logs these hours into the project plan, resulting in an accurate, up-to-the minute schedule. Standard Time can give project managers the information they need to identify project slippage before it's too late.

If You Can Track, Then You Can Forecast
J.P. Robert, IT Project Leader for the City of Winnipeg, and a Standard Time user explained, "With Standard Time we can see how many hours we're actually spending on tasks. We can use this information to forecast future projects better and to explain why the introduction of new 'number one' priorities hampered the delivery of last week's 'number one' priorities."

The two places projects are most likely to go sour are at the outset, when unrealistic expectations for tasks and work are established, and along the way, when the project is slipping without the knowledge of the project manager. Project estimates become more realistic when pertinent information is available on an ongoing basis. By keeping information about task work originating from team members flowing into the project plan, project managers will be able to see where a project really stands, and identify when milestones are in jeopardy. Standard Time facilitates the kind of information flow that can help you make sure your projects succeed.

Copyright 2001 The Alexis Gutzman Group

Download Standard Time